July 5 - We meet the Immigration Officers

Funny story - we're not on safari right now. We were going to be, but Malawi Immigration had a different idea.

We were already later for our bus because we had to wait over half an hour for a minibus into town. Our bus was actually pulling out of the "station" when we got there, but Daniel (our volunteer coordinator) flagged it down.  The bus was packed, so the four of us had to stand in the aisle, along with several other unfortunate souls. We were trying to make the best of it, but we really didn't want to stand for four or five hours.

Annie, Jenna, and Jayme standing in the bus (picture by Annie)

About ten minutes after leaving town, the bus stopped at a road block, which seemed normal enough, until the driver pointed at us and told us to get off of the bus.  We weren't really sure what was going on, but he seemed adamant, so we squished past other people in the aisle, and got off of the bus. An immigration officer was at the bottom of the steps and demanded to see our passports. Well, none of us had them - we didn't think we'd need them if we weren't going to be crossing any borders! Jenna and I had copies of our information pages, but not of the stamped page.  The officer asked us how she was supposed to believe we were missionaries (which is what we said) if we didn't have documentation. She then said we would have to stay there and instructed the bus driver to give us our fare back. He did, and the the bus drove away. Without us.

We were herded into a little road house/office thing and told to sit on a wooden bench. Some more officers came in, asking questions about our ages, our countries, our business in Malawi, and repeatedly saying that they couldn't believe us without documentation. They started talking to each other in Chichewa and left us sitting there, not knowing what was going on. Jayme pulled out a pack of gum and one officer sharply asked her if it was drugs.

The illegal immigrants (picture by Annie)

While waiting to find out our fate, one of the younger officers started hitting on Jenna.  He asked if she was married, if she liked Malawian men, etc. Then he asked if she smoked, because he was going to share his cigarettes with her. She replied in the negative, and one of the other officers said "Of course she doesn't smoke, she's a 'missionary!'" The officers finally decided that they were going to take us to the immigration office in the city. We were then loaded into a shuttle/bus kind of thing along with three officers and only told that we were going to the office. We were trying to let Daniel know where we were going, but they wouldn't give us any details.

We got to the office and "the boss" told us that they "just really needed to see our passports."  We explained (AGAIN) that we didn't have them.  He told us to just call someone to go get our passports for us and bring them to the office. Jenna explained (AGAIN) that our rooms were locked and we were the only ones with the keys, so no one else would be able to get our passports for us. The Boss then decided that we should be brought to our house to get our passports, so we were loaded on the bus again, with about four officers and driven to Teethsavers.  We got our passports and showed them to the officer who came inside with us.  She seemed satisfied, and we thought we were done, but she told us that we had to go back to the office to show the Boss.  On the way, we went back to the road block to pick up another passportless foreigner, we stopped at a grocery store so that one of the officers could chat with her friend for awhile and then offer said friend a ride to lunch on the illegal immigrant bus, and then pulled off on the side of the road for another officer to browse some pots that were being sold there. She didn't even buy one! Frustration.

When we finally got to the immigration office, the Boss looked at our passports, had one of his minions take down some information, and then annoyedly told us we were free to go. We grabbed a mini bus back to Teethsavers and came home.  We cooked cabbage and cornbread for lunch. Thankfully Daniel was able to reschedule our safari for tomorrow without any money lost, so we aren't really out anything besides a day (and K200 for the mini buses.)

This afternoon we went to the nursery for  a few hours since we hadn't been there in awhile and played with our little friends. We went out to eat with Annie and one of her Malawian friends tonight. We rode in the back of a pick-up truck under the stars. It was SO much fun! We ate at a Chinese hotel, oddly enough.  The food was good, and a nice change of pace.

Annie, me, Jayme, and Jenna on our way to dinner (picture by Annie)

The whole crew at dinner (picture by Danielle)

Tomorrow we (try to) go on safari...again!